Spanish Weekends

Good Morning! It’s Spring in Granada and the weather is great. This week’s forecast is a high of 80° everyday and sunny. That’s just 26º C if it makes you feel any better to think of it that way. Man, that celsius is confusing. In honor of springtime in Granada, here’s a few local photos that demonstrate her beauty.

This weekend was a very eventful couple of days. It started Friday, (that’s when my weekend starts!) with a day packed with fun activities. The first event for me was horse-back riding. I had never been before, and even though it was very tranquil, it was still a great experience. How many opportunities do you have to go horse-back riding in Southern Spain? I had to take it. We rode around some trails in the “Vega” of Granada, an area just west of the city that is relatively unpopulated. We got to ride around some fields and had no interruptions from cars or anything else that might get in your way in the city.

Whenever the ride was over we headed home to the city super hungry and tired. But, there wasn’t much time to waste, my next activity was right ahead of me. After a short break, we traded our ropes and saddles for the open-road and cascos (helmets). We were zooming all around some of the steepest hills of Granada when we went for our guided bike-tour. It was a good route, even though I was already very familiar with it, down the Rio Genil, on the sports path called “La Ruta del Colesterol.” It’s right by my house and it’s a great path for running, biking, or just a morning stroll. We had a good tour guide and I’m pretty sure everybody made it through that day unscathed. Mission Success.

Here’s some photos of horse-back riding. It’s unbelievable how hard is to manoeuvre one of these things and take pictures at the same time! Needless to say, some of them didn’t come out so great haha.

Xavier and his horse strolling along…

Eileen Having Fun

Emily was also happy!

We had company. They couldn’t let the horses have all the fun

This guy’s got a bum leg; he’s one of the dogs that followed us the entire time.

Actually the two smaller dogs follwed us the entire time from the farm, this one we picked up along the way. He spotted us from his yard and squeezed on through his fence to join us. There was a group of the most adventurous dogs I’ve ever seen, it just amazed me. They were climbing in ditches, hopping out of tunnels, strolling along the whole way with us; one of them could only walk on threee legs!

There’s me and one of these terrorizors. This one didn’t want to leave us, he followed us the whole way to the bus station.

After the horses and the bikes I had to head straight to the bus station to catch my bus to the beach. We actually brought our bags to the biking tour because we had no time, once the excursion was over we caught a cab and made it to the bus station. It was an easy hour and half bus trip to the town center of Almuñécar, there we stayed in a beach house on the outskirts of town. The trip couldn’t have been planned better if we tried. It was just 8€ to get to the beach, and then about 8€ a night to stay at the apartment we rented. It was perfect for all of us and we got to spend two days on the beach. Here’s a few photos that help to share the beauty of the Medditerranean Coast:

We climbed up on this rock, and even though it killed the feet, it was worth it. The views were spectacular.

Like a Postcard

I then took a walk towards the town and the residential areas. The town was brilliant with just enough luxuries and plenty of natural beauty. I climbed a few walls and tried to take a few photos from some decent views. No matter how bad my photography skills are, I don’t think I managed to take a bad picture. Here’s the rest of my photos from my adventure in Almuñécar. I have a feeling that there’s a couple people in this town with money.

That’s it; I hope you enjoyed my post and the few glimpses that I was able to of the beautiful Costa Tropical. Being there for a few days was great, but after a little time at the beach I always ask myself a similar question, “what would it have been like to have grown up here?” Either way it’s still an awesome privilege to have the opportunity to visit places like this. Next weekend I have the privilege of visiting the North; I’m headed to Pais Vasco for a weekend and can’t wait to share the adventures that I experience there. I also have to make the time to write about my trip to Gibraltar, that was another great adventure. No matter which city it is, the Mediterranean is a beautiful, cold, sea……….. How blue is that water???